Like a lot of high school graduates, Judy Blume had planned to take a gap year — after writing her last novel. But the opportunity to open a book shop, Books & Books in Key West, was too tempting to resist….
I used to hang around a bunch of poets. Not because I liked them—they were snobbish in their elegiac greatness—but because as poets, they were guaranteed to get rejected more often than I. My novel was dead in the water while…
Friday Feast: Thoughts from Literary Professionals of Color, Kindness at Writing Conferences, What Editors Can Do, Thick Skin, and What to Read after Watching Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’
I’m back from a whirlwind trip to Buffalo for Dyngus Day, a post-Lenten holiday that involves pussy willows and polka. But really, it’s about drinking and eating lots of pierogies and kielbasa. Much as I enjoy spending all my free time with…
In case you missed it—and I did—January 24th was the feast day for Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers and journalists. Our guy trudged around the snowy Swiss landscape trying to win back Catholics lost to Calvinism. He…
I’ve taken to watching disaster movies on Saturday nights because there’s something satisfying about watching Mother Nature wipe out humanity when we’ve been so bad. This is a result of watching too many political debates and town halls and being…